Word processor users have become accustomed to using a spell checker to review an electronic document for spelling errors. Modem email composing application programs (email editors) have been equipped with spelling checkers. One common complaint among computer users is that email addresses are often labeled as spelling errors by the spell checker in either a word processor or an email editor. The user is required to instruct the spell checker to either ignore the proper name or to add the proper name to a custom dictionary. As a result, the spell checking process is less efficient.
Normally, an email editor will “resolve” a partial email name that is typed in the “TO” field of an email form. For example, if a user enters “Montero” in the TO field, then the email editor will check an address book or an email name cache of previously used email addresses and names to find a match. If a match is found, then the email editor will return an email address corresponding to the name (e.g., JMontero@microsoft.com) and will return a display name string (e.g., “José Luis Montero”). The email editor will use the address to transmit the email note to the proper recipient. The display name will be used to replace the name that the user entered into the TO field.
Unfortunately, if the user types the name “Montero” or “José” or “José Luis Montero” in the body of the email note, the email editor's spell checker is likely to label the proper name as a spelling error. This can occur even when the user has entered the proper name (or part of the proper name) in the TO field and the email editor has already resolved the name. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a spell checker that can recognize proper spellings of proper names corresponding to resolved email addresses. The proper names should also be made available to other databases, such as auto-completion and smart tags databases.